To be in accordance with Google’s requirements for sites to show in the stack ranking and to overall allow for a more secure user experience, Art Storefronts implemented and entire, site-wide SSL for all its users.

Conversion measurement lets you track actions people take after viewing your Facebook Ads across multiple devices, including mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers. See our article How To: Set Up Facebook Conversion Goals.

Art Walls Added

We implemented the ability for people to specifically add panel art to their site and sell it via a standard store. See our article How To: Offer Art Walls.

Art Storefronts allows customers to offer calendars with an interactive calendar on the website. See our article How To: Offer Calendars.

January

Collage Layout

We recently implemented new layout for things like product galleries and pages. Instead of using a traditional format you now can use a collage. If you’d like more information on this, please see our article How To: Use the Collage Layout.

We implemented the ability to allow our customers to sell gift cards and gift certificates without requiring a shipping cost or taxes being applied to them. For more information, please see How To: Offer Gift Cards on Your Site.

We recently implemented a new page type that allows you to create a heading in your navigation bar that is not actually clickable and instead will display a drop-down menu of items when set up properly.

November

PCI Compliance Update

We recently implemented a large update to the platform to fall in line with the best practices for PCI compliance. This makes your sessions and the sessions of your customers more secure.

In many cases, the only thing stopping many business owners from executing on data-driven decisions is the lack of easily available data. Where did your customers come from? What is the ROI on your latest digital marketing campaign? Now, the answers are just a few clicks away. These are powerful new windows into your customer base that will provide you with actionable insight – so that when you install our built-in lead capture tool, you'll be able to instantly track how well that feature is performing (see: Everything You Need to Know About the Sales & Customer Acquisition Report).

May

Automated Fulfillment

Upgrade to print-fulfillment functionality, whereby you can get paid directly and immediately into your own merchant account even when you outsource your printing.

Upgrade to print-fulfillment functionality, where you can sell your own items alongside prints that will be outsourced, charge your own shipping, taxes, etc. The shopping cart will be separated into separate shopping baskets (like how it works on Amazon.com) based on who the shipper is (see: Fulfillment Program).

April

Infinite Scrolling

A very important feature update making it easier and faster for your customers to browse hundreds, if not thousands of images, all on one page without having to click deep into nested pages (see: Goodbye Pagination, Hello Infinite Scrolling).

Trust Badges

We've implemented four brand new trust badges to help you reassure your site visitors that they're purchasing from a secure site backed by a third party (see: How To: Use the Trust Bar and Trust Badges).

Before, if someone was performing a guest checkout, you couldn't see the unsold cart because they hadn't created an account yet. Now, once the customer provides their email address, we will show you their unsold cart in the unsold carts section of the site manager. This means you now will have more unsold carts that you can attack to increase your conversion rates (see: Everything You Need to Know About the Unsold Cart Feature).

After learning how infrequently our customers in general are reviewing and making decisions based on data from Google Analytics, we did an overhaul of the site statistics section to make it super easy for our customers (and their employees) to focus on the same key metrics that expert digital marketers do.

Form for Art Fairs

Do you have a retail side to your business, or are you an artist or photographer who does art fairs or shows? If yes, this feature is for you, and it is something you must implement because it will not only help you acquire new customers, it will help you get more business from existing customers particularly when they are NOT physically with you in person. In the new digital age -- you must be doing this, and can't afford to let your customers buy online from others (trust us -- they are) when they are not physically in your store. when they could be buying online from you. But you can't get online sales from these customers unless you have a way to reach them AFTER they leave your store.

2015

December

Order Time Stamps

Orders are now time-stamped in your local time zone, based on your computer settings.

Size Restrictions

Custom styles now have size restrictions for more flexible customization options.

Added "lead content" and next and previous buttons to product gallery pages.

September

Detailed Description and Specification Content Area

Added an area for a detailed description and product specifications.

Previous and Next Buttons

The "previous/ next" buttons on the product pages were not previously functional. We have added functionality to these to skip to the next image/ product.

Fixed Pricing

Fixed pricing on media, frames, style finish and print options are now available. Previously, percentage was the only available option.

Export Order Via XML

Exporting orders now allows you to export via XML by specific date range, and order status.

Order Stats Menu Changes

Added drop-down menus to order status page so that you no longer need to go into each order to modify the status.

Sort Custom Frames

Implemented ability to sort custom frames.

Shipping Tooltips

Added Shipping tooltips. There will now be a question mark next to each shipping method with a tooltip that appears when hovered over with more information regarding that method. This allows the customer to get a better description on the methods, which can help avoid confusion whilst ordering.

Custom Finishes and Print Option Text

Ability to modify "Custom Finishes" and "Print Options" text. This can be found under the Personalize tab on the Store page.

Download Images from The Site Manager

Print Store images now available for download from site manager.

August

Wall Preview Upgrades

Now goes full screen width, and pins to top of page for a more robust experience.

There is now unlimited height, which means your images can be as tall as you need, and the wall preview will still work.

Lobby background image updated to something a bit nicer.

Tablet experience is incredible as it goes full screen, allowing for a great in-person experience. This is a game changer for artists and art galleries who frequently sell in person and can accommodate the needs of a customer in the palm of their hand.

Created for portrait and event photographers who need to easily send a professional email to their client which contains a sample image, a direct link to their gallery of images, as well as a password to get access (if applicable).

July

Bulk Edit for Images in An Art Print Store

This one is for all the Artists, Photographers, and Galleries out there. We empathized with having to individually edit each image in your store. Now, you don't have to. You can now mass apply changes to as many images as you'd like, all at one time (see: How To: Bulk Edit Items in An Art Print Store).

In addition to this, we've also add various other order information to the export for all your reporting needs.

May

Site Speed Optimization

We had a breakthrough and are deploying this feature right now. For example, a 50mb file would normally take around 73 seconds, and now it takes around 31 seconds. For print studios - Because the buying process will be markedly faster for all your customers, we expect this to improve new customer acquisition, as well as help show your existing customers that you are constantly investing in improving their buying experience.

Quantity Field Added to Order Process

The purpose is to (1) encourage people to order multiple quantities to increase average order sizes and (2) make the buying process more efficient as another incremental improvement to the overall customer buying experience.

Form from Field

Minor quality of life improvement here. You can now specific which e-mail address you want to show as the "From" field on a contact form.

April

Incompatible Size Warning

Another customer experience improvement that is designed to make sure that your customers are aware of all the media types you offer, even though their image or chosen size might be incompatible. For example, say they upload an image that can only be printed 4x6, and you only allow canvas wraps for images that are at least 8x10. It will now show the canvas as an "inactive" media type, and will provide a hover tooltip to inform the customer of what is going on.

Typically, shipping methods are sorted from low to high price. Now, you can manually sort your shipping methods into the order you would like them to appear. To make use of this new feature, visit the "Shipping Methods" section within your site manager.

This is just a "fine-tuning" improvement to the overall experience for your customers buying canvas wraps. Before, they could select the color picker, but it wouldn't automatically CHANGE the selection of the canvas border to THAT selection. Now, it does.

February

Pagination on Store Category Pages

This allows for faster page loading times, and a better user experience, if you have hundreds (if not thousands) of images on a page.

Actual Size Option Added to Upload Store

This is an additional option that will allow your customer, if you choose, to be able to bypass cropping (if you are using the cropping tool) and select the exact size of their image, down to the decimal point. You can turn this setting "On" when editing your store page, on the INFO tab, in the "Cropping Tool" settings.

Image Overflow Functionality for Proper Wrap Visualization

Now, you can allow your customers to visualize a gallery wrap when image overflow is selected with precision. When the customer chooses a different size, the border size will adjust on the fly.

Pagination on Visitor Upload Store Page and Search Functionality

When you have customers, who might upload tons of images, this can be a real help to their user experience. First, with pagination, you can make sure the page loads quickly. Next, with search functionality, you can provide a great convenience to your customer who can now search images and make purchases faster.

January

Print Packing Slips

In your Orders section, you can now print packing slips that don't contain pricing. This PDF will also be included within each order download zip file.

Order History and Order Notes

Every order will now have a trackable history with a date and time, so that you have a permanent record of every time it changed status. Furthermore, you can add a permanent note to the order record, and these notes can be included in the emails that are sent to your customer when you choose to update them on the status of an order.

Additional Order Statuses

By popular request from this forum post, we learned that these statuses could save some of you a few hours per week, so we added several new statuses.

Default Parent Store Option Added for Child Websites

Now, you can set the "Default Parent Store" page on a child website, on the INFO & SETTINGS tab. You'll want to do this when setting up a new child website (and probably go update the ones you have already set up, too). This will empower your child website user to be able to create new stores whenever they wish, whereby the new store will automatically be paired to the "Default Parent Store" you have established. They will immediately see all the media types, options, and pricing associated with that store. This will also save you the hassle of having to pair each store page as they are created!

Image Zoom Feature Added

This can be activated or deactivated in any of your stores, as you see fit. Here's what the zoom feature will allow your customer to see when they hover over a product image.

2014

December

PayPal Checkout Option (deprecated 2016)

PayPal has always been an option when using the PayPal shopping cart with your Art Storefronts site. But now, PayPal is now a checkout option within the Art Storefronts shopping cart. If you'd like to accept payments via PayPal, simply activate this option in your INFO & SETTINGS section (see: How To: Set Up PayPal Standard AS a Payment Method).

Automated Coupons

Would you rather have discounts applied automatically, rather than requiring your customer to enter in a coupon code? This is what automated coupons are all about. Also, they can be "stacked", meaning, multiple can be utilized at the same time. They can also be used in conjunction with an actual coupon code that is entered in (see: How To: Create A Coupon That Applies Automatically).

Increased Account Security

We updated our password validation to require 8 characters, one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, and one digit. This is not only for your own Art Storefronts account; but for your customers who are establishing accounts on your websites as well.

Toggle Shipping Methods for Child Sites on or Off

Many of our customers offer in-store pickup as a shipping option. However, when dealing with child websites, this shipping method may not be applicable, and you might want to turn it (or any other shipping method) off. Now, you can do so when editing a given shipping method within your site manager.

Site Speed Improvements

As we continue adding more customers, and you (our customers) continue getting more traffic and activity on your websites, we get to investigate where the heavy usage is and then make optimizations to speed up the user experience as much as possible. Today, we just deployed some major optimizations. You will therefore probably notice that your page loading time is much faster. You'll also notice that shopping carts that contain dozens of individual items are super snappy as well.

Export Orders to A File

Now, you can not only easily export orders, but we've organized the data in a convenient way where product sales, shipping sales, and tax amounts are properly segregated. This will allow you to track the key metrics of your business while also making your accounting process easier (see: How To: Export Orders).

November

Size Limit Notifications on The Cropping Tool

Now, when a user is selecting an area with the cropping tool and reaches a minimum or maximum size, the system will provide a beautiful overlay message that tells the user that they have reached the minimum size. Furthermore, if a user wants to rotate the orientation of an image when using the cropping tool, and the image cannot be rotated for size or quality reasons, it will likewise provide a message telling them that it cannot be done.

A phone number is now required at checkout. It previously was not required.

Automatic Order E-mails

Now, whenever you update the shipping status of any order, you have the option to send an email to your customer that will notify them of the change in status. This will further save you back and forth time.

New Shipping Status

"Ready for Pickup" and "Picked Up", which will gracefully handle the status flow of customers who are picking up orders in your shop.

October

Media Types Additions

Wood, Glass, and Banner default media types have been added to the platform.

To give our print studios even more capabilities, we've worked to maximize the variety of supported image formats. We added PSD, EPS, SVG, WepB, ICO, and BMP to this list. Here's a list of all the currently accepted file types: JPG, TIFF, PDF, PNG, GIF, BMP, ICO, SVG, EPS, PSD, WebP (see: Everything You Need to Know About Uploaded Images).

Guest User Functionality

A "guest user" is someone creating things on your website (like uploading images and such) but has not logged in, nor created an account. Now, when these users create things, they will be saved into a secure session. This will dramatically improve the user's overall experience.

Child websites now have the option to turn media types on or off depending on what they would like to display in their store. This can be done by opening the Art Print Store and click on the tab labeled media.

Enabled Pasting from Right Clicking

While right clicking is generally disabled an adjustment was made to allow customers to right-click to paste information in forms during the checkout process.

(For Authorized Print Studios Only) If you would prefer not to use a revenue split as a means of adding new artists with child websites, you can set your wholesale prices and allow them to add their own mark-ups (see How To: Enable Mark-Ups If You Are A Print Studio).

Print Studio Image Download from Child Sites

Your artist/photographers can upload high resolution files directly to their child website and once they receive an order, you can download it.